water whelk sanibel

The Gulf Of Mexico was crystal clear yesterday with only a slight breeze at Blind Pass so it was a perfect day to snorkel. Unfortunately, I only had time to stop and take this photo so I didn’t get to test the waters.

dredging snorkeling blind Pass

Aha! … But I did have time today!

I met Lance, Krista, Amy and Mike (all from Ft Myers) shelling near the Captiva side of the pass…

Lance, Krista, Amy Mike

They were filling their pockets and shell bags with WHELKS, FIGHTING CONCHS, OLIVES and check out this beautiful ROUGH SCALLOP Krista found…

krista seashells

Okay, I’ve shown you lots of different shelling contraptions but this one had me cracking up… big time! Kal made this “telescope backhoe” to reach those hard to get shells. He was having a competition with his family on naming it. LOL

telescope backhoe

It takes the whole family to show off this awesome tool.. Here’s Emma, Kalman, Anna Lee, Kal, Lee and Caroline from South Carolina. Hey Kal, what’s the winning name?

shelling tool family

Super Sheller Clark better watch out because our friend Daron has been coming up with the best shell of the day lately.

Daron alphabet cone

He found this really nice big ALPHABET CONE with beautiful lettering.

darons cone

I was so tickled with my two cones but Daron’s was bigger than both mine put together. I snorkeled all around Blind Pass today and while gave away most of my finds, these were my keepers. Oops! Other than that gorgeous LACE MUREX.

shells found snorkeling

Did you see that sweet little ALPHABET CONE in the bottom of the last photo? I filmed that while I was snorkeling today. Here’s a video of some of the shells I collected… underwater! I bought a waterproof housing for my camera but I’ve been nervous to use it. Really, we’ve had some really strong currents lately so it’s not safe most days to snorkel at Blind Pass but today was an exceptionally calm day. So, I got out the waterproof case and I tested the waters (literally). It worked! Oh, and since it goes really fast, I slowed down the part where I find a WENTLETRAP. Yes! At Blind Pass, I found a monster WENTLTRAP! Enjoy the quick vid!

PS- I’m sure you noticed the dredging barges in the background of my photos. Some of the pipes have been laid but they haven’t started pumping the sand/shells yet. I’ll let you know when I have more info.